Orange sellout

This day was an ordinary offiice day. In the afternoon we traveled to Kirkuk.
There were two accidents on the way. First a truck had rammed a pickup. Everybody were busy picking up oranges. They also seem to miss the front tires, maybe they are in the pickup.






Later on we confronted an American road block. Always when the Americans are on the road it is blocked for all traffic. You have to stay one hundred meters behind them or even more far away, or it can go like this if not worse.









A half car can be seen on this picture. It was smashed accidently obviously and Iraqi Kurdish security forces are there along with the Americans that smashed the car. It seems like they want to justify the accident.

Later on we stayed at a popular restaurant road restaurant to rest and eat on our way. Just as we sat down to eat 50-60 man Kurdish security force entered the restaurant with a staff from some department. We did not get much rest but a pretty good security and great food.

Baba Gurgur in daylight

In Kirkuk there are security forces patrolling all the streets and carefully inspecting the streets and anything that can be an object of terrorism. The streets are less crowded and you do not see many parked cars because it is illegal beside in special garages. You wish that this had been done before the last 2 weeks 26 bombs, where as 6 bombs during the last days.

The source?

This is Baba Gurgur. The fire is called the "Eternal fire" and has been there since time immemorial and it is still there today.




This mosque and the church are situated side by side with a street in between. The people in this city are living in peace, at least in this ethnic part of the city. In the heaven above the mosque there is a reminders of the actual situation here.